In Dog We Trust .
President Frankin .
For Motion Picture Use Only .
Those are just a few of the glare differences between fake propmoviemoney and real sound attender . But that has n’t discontinue C of enterprising scammers from authorise off the phony bills at immediate payment register across the United States .
originally this week , two military personnel boughttwo used carsin Georgia using more than $ 3,000 Charles Frederick Worth of Hollywood funny money . In April , property cash was used in astring of counterfeit purchasesinWaterloo , Iowa . Same story inTennessee , TexasandAlabama .
RJ Rappaport is founding father and CEO of RJR Props and Set Dressing Services in Atlanta , one of the top producer ofultra - realistic airplane propeller money . Rappaport ’s fake immediate payment has been used in blockbuster like " The Wolf of Wall Street " and " Let ’s Be Cops , " and it ’s rained down in 100 of music video by artists like Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent .
" There ’s a very serious problem powerful now , " state Rappaport . " There are folk who are making prop money that ’s too realistic , and it ’s getting used in crimes from sea-coast to coast . "
Indeed , last hebdomad , an Atlanta twosome bought$1,000 in merchandisefrom a Wal - Mart . Not all criminals get their property money from a moving-picture show set . Many buy it online from sites like Amazon and eBay .
In the airscrew industry , there ’s a okay and often fuzzy telephone line between making sound phoney money and straight - upcounterfeiting . The Secret Service , queerly enough , is the office tasked with enforcing U.S. imitative laws , but it does n’t write denotative rule for picture money . And prop companies that cross the agency ’s blurred line will get an unwished-for sojourn from the feds .
Just postulate Gregg Bilson Jr. , president and CEO ofIndependent Studio Services(ISS ) , one of the biggest prop house in Hollywood . Back in 2000 , ISS got a vast order from the producers of " Rush Hour 2 " — $ 1 billion in fake $ 100 bills .
" Fourteen pallet lading of $ 100 bills , " remembers Bilson . " Just to buy the report to make the billion dollars — and this was 16 years ago — cost $ 77,000 . And that did n’t include the impression , the labor , everything . "
" Rush Hour 2 " producers brought in a Secret Service agent to give the dark-green light to the film ’s climactic stunt — blowing up the billion dollars in hard cash and have it rain down down on the crowded Las Vegas Strip . Halfway through production , the broker informed the producers that the money print by ISS was too close to the actual affair . But the producers ignored the federal agent and never tell Bilson .
" When we filmed the scene , extras grab handfuls of the hard currency to keep as souvenirs , " say Bilson . " Then those posting started turning up in different situation . That ’s when the proverbial s&%t come to the fan . "
Bilson have a cease - and - refrain order from the Secret Service and had to call on over or destroy all stay copy of the property currency . The feds finally go back 19 fake bills that fall out at hard cash registers in Las Vegas and Los Angeles and more than $ 180 million that was lay away as relic . That was the last time ISS printed airscrew money . Now Bilson encourages productions to utilise substantial money instead , which is absolutely effectual .
" There ’s this urban fable out there that you ca n’t shoot real money , " says Bilson . " The first thing Secret Service will say is to apply genuine money . Other than having one C of thousands or potentially meg of dollars disclose , there ’s no reason not to employ real money . "
ISS now sells stacks of vacuous bill — some are even street - aged — that can be topped with one real one and passed off as 1000000 . But for euphony videos that call for close - ups of rapper flipping through stacks of hundreds , blanks are n’t going to cut it . That ’s where RJ Rappaport and his Atlanta prop sign of the zodiac come in .
Rappaport sell two chief types of prop hard currency popular with production , a two - sided version used for background that ’s " 100 pct impossible to mistake for real money , " and a one - sided version designed for close - ups that ’s perilously skinny to the real affair , until you flip it over and it ’s clean .
" The Secret Service keeps statistic about what counterfeit bills have been used in crimes . Our money has never , ever , ever been used in a criminal offence , " says Rappaport . " You would have to be unsighted . I love Ray Charles , but Ray Charles would be capable to enjoin our money is fake , and not only is Ray Charles blind , but he ’s numb . "
Rappaport designs the fake bill himself , spend as much as a yr fine-tune his original drawings — not copies , he insists — to match his clients ' demands while persist on the right side of the law . It ’s not always easy .
" There is no acceptance letter that you get from the FBI , or Secret Service or law enforcement . It does n’t make like that , " pronounce Rappaport . " They do n’t say , ' Yup , that ’s ok . ' But they will say , ‘ We wo n’t go after you . That ’s acceptable . ' That ’s as much of a handshake and a nod as you ’re go to get . Very often , though , you wo n’t even get that . It ’s almost impossible to get a meeting with the Secret Service . "
The Secret Service might not publish prescribed guideline for prop money , but it does providea handy chartfor key out counterfeit up-to-dateness . So heads up to the distrait 16 - year - old checkout girl texting her boyfriend at the register : That next $ 100 bill might be a leftover from a Lil Wayne video .
